Westlake schools seek new money to avoid further cuts

WESTLAKE — Westlake City Schools will once again put an operation levy before voters in an effort to avoid making further cuts to the district.
The levy will appear as Issue 88 on the ballot this November and is an additional 5.4-mill operating levy. If approved by voters, the levy would cost $15.75 per month per $100,000 in home valuation.
The new issue comes on the heels of a 5.9-mill levy request which voters defeated by just 44 votes in the May election. As a result of that failure, the district trimmed nearly $1 million from its annual budget.
The failure of Issue 88 would force the district to make even deeper cuts, according to Superintendent Dan Keenan.
“If Issue 88 fails, we’ll need to make cuts that will approach $2.2 million from our budget,” he said. “We’ll have to cut around 38-40 positions, 30 of which would be teaching.”
In addition to staff cuts, the district also would have to make further cuts to transportation. After the last levy failed in May the district reduced busing to students outside of a one-mile radius from schools, but if Issue 88 fails Keenan said the district will have to reduce it to the state minimum of a two-mile radius.
If voters approve the levy in November, it will enable the school district to keep reasonable class sizes, update education materials, implement state-of-the-art technology and keep Advanced Placement classes and courses.
The district and its supporters are confident that the community will support them in November.
“I believe the individuals are out there that believe in our schools, believe in our community, and they are going to come to the polls this time,” Westlake Levy Campaign-Chair Cris Kennedy said. “I honestly believe it was a surprise to many in our community that the levy didn’t pass in May, and I think that people really now understand what the impact is going to be. People here want an excellent school district.”
If Issue 88 passes, Keenan said the city of Westlake would remain in the bottom 25 percent of tax rates in Cuyahoga County.
“We’ve had a great school district for a number of years, and we are asking to raise taxes,” Keenan said. “We take that very seriously, and when we do it, we’ve got a pretty good record of demonstrating that we’re going to stretch it the best we can and get great results.”

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